Unsaturated linear hydrocarbons such as α-olefins or 1-alkenes are an industrially important group of molecules which can serve as feedstocks for producing various materials such as detergents, fuels, pharmaceutical products, plastics, synthetic rubbers and viscosity additives. Olefins or alkenes are unsaturated hydrocarbons whose molecules contain one or more pairs of carbon atoms linked together by a double bond.
Shorter alkene products are desirable in industry because of their usefulness as surfactants and lubricants. Because 1-alkenes are hydrocarbons, they can also serve as fuels. In this context, 1-alkenes with shorter carbon chain lengths are also preferred because they have lower melting points (FIG. 1). Thus, a need exists for improved methods and compositions for synthesizing 1-alkenes of desired chain lengths.